3
Dear Sir:
We acknowledge your letter of October 5 but we regret that as yet we have no information in regard to the excess charge of $1.02 which you were obliged to pay on the express shipment of one piece 27 yds. of plaid silk chiffon. We have taken up the matter with the mill however and as soon as we receive their report we shall write you again.
Asking your indulgence meanwhile we are
Yours truly,
CHAPTER XIII
THE CLEAR SENTENCE
Business men like to talk of brevity. They tell you that a talk or a letter must be brief. What they really mean is that the talk or the letter must be concise; that it must state the business clearly in the fewest possible words. Don't omit any essential fact when you write, but don't repeat. If you can express an idea in ten words, don't use twenty. In a later exercise we shall meet the sentence, The size of the crops is always important, and it is especially so to the farmer, and this is because he has to live by the crops. The writer of that sentence was very careless. He had a good idea and thought that, if he kept repeating it, he would make it stronger. Just the reverse is true. The sentence may be expressed in a very few words: The size of the crop is vitally important to the farmer.